An LVDS reception apparatus is one example of a reception apparatus which receives serial data signals and clock signals. LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling) is a method of transmitting and receiving signals by changing the current direction in a pair of resistor-terminated differential transmission lines, and is standardized as IEEE P1596.3. An LVDS reception apparatus receives serial data signals and clock signals from a plurality of channels transmitted over a pair of differential transmission lines, and based on the received clock signals, generates a sampling clock signal, and in sampler block circuits provided individually corresponding to each of the plurality of channels, samples and outputs each of the bits of data of the serial data signals based on the sampling clock signal.
In a reception apparatus which receives such serial data signals and clock signals, from generation of a sampling clock signal based on a received clock signal, until an indication of sampling timing by a sampling clock signal in a sampler block circuit, there exists a certain delay time due to the existence of an intermediate buffer. Due to the existence of this delay time, there is the possibility that in the sampler block circuit, the sampling timing indicated by a sampling clock signal may be positioned at a timing which is shifted from the center of the data window for each bit of the serial data signal.
An invention intended to resolve this problem is disclosed in Patent Reference 1. The invention disclosed in this reference document, while not explicitly stating that the invention is for LVDS, provides a delay circuit which imparts a delay to received serial data signals in a stage before the sampler block circuit. By making the delay amount of this delay circuit a prescribed value, the sampling timing indicated by a sampling clock signal in the sampler block circuit can be positioned at the center of the data window of each bit of the serial data signal.    Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-275066